12 Significant Changes to the Advertising Business
(Since We Opened the Agency in 2013)
No single one of these may be a shocking surprise by itself, but when you put them all together, it’s pretty mind-blowing how seismic the cumulative shift has been since 2013.
The proliferation of project-based work
It used to be mostly AOR. That was the foundation. Now it is clearly more project-driven. That comes with pros and cons.
The growth of the outcome-based model
Today it’s less about hours and more about getting deliverables for money. In the long run, outcomes will probably prove better for both agency and brand, but currently it can be challenging because new models have not been fully established to replace the long-standing one.
Marketing is now socially led
While around since roughly 2006, advertising on social media didn’t really explode until the 2010s with the introduction of targeting on platforms. Now, obviously, it’s at the forefront of everything we do.
The Influencer effect
In 2013, Influencer marketing, as we know it now, didn’t exist. In 2017, it was a $1.3 Billion business in the US. For 2025, it is forecasted to be $9.29 Billion. It’s a brilliant new place to “advertise.” That said, companies still need brand-generated work that speaks 100% in their voice.
Private Equity pressure
Back then, they were just starting to enter the business. Now they’re major players, and many have short-term goals.
“Performance-driven marketing”
Those words didn’t exist. That’s because all marketing is supposed to “perform.” It’s just the manner in which performance is defined. Now ittends to only mean immediate sales results. Branding is not included in that definition because it takes a little time for it to perform. The sales come later, and fewer and fewer have the patience for that.Significant in-house agency expansion
Over the years, this pendulum has swung back and forth. Going forward every brand will have some form of an IHA, small, large or in between. Certain things just makes more sense to do in-house. Equally, other things definitely need to be done by an objective, third-party expert.
Less value put on campaigns
We see so few great campaigns these days. Most things are one-offs loosely tied to together by a unifying strategy. And that’s in the good cases! It’s very hard for people to retain and remember a singular execution. Repetition of a campaign, with fresh interpretations, helps pound it home.
The impact of AI
Already substantial, AI is on its way to being a significant part of everything we do in the business.
Two people can be an “agency”
An agency can be a collective of freelancers, fractionals, whatever you want to call them. They just don’t necessarily need to be “employees.” Add to that the whole post-Covid, remote dynamic and the definition of an “agency” is brand new. It used to be everyone in the same office all the time.
Subscription-models for social
Companies have popped up who will crank out unlimited posts for a nominal monthly fee. But does more content equal better content? Plus, it’s mostlyall transactional and does nothing to build a brand.The diminished importance of branding by many (not all)
There seems to be a line in the sand: those who believe in branding, and those who believe in lots of transactional work. Why can’t you do both? To us, that represents the success model for brands going forward. Our whole company is based on being Branding Experts and Platform Wizards.
